Desperately Seeking Sunshine # 4: Amber and Silver

Due to unexpected technical difficulties, I was unable to carry on blogging while I was on the ship. Now that I am back in Canada, the blogging has begun and will continue until I’m all caught up.

 

 

The second port of call for this cruise was at Amber Cove in the Dominican Republic. It was a first-ever visit to the D.R. for me. Amber Cove is a fairly new cruise terminal and event/entertainment centre, purpose-developed by Carnival Corp. to supplement the limited docking facilities in the harbour of Puerto Plata (“Port of Silver”), some 15 or so kilometres to the east. Probably the best viewpoint for the mountain scenery around Amber Cove would be an outdoor upper deck of a cruise ship docked here.

Given the location, the tours the ship offered were a mixture of varying experiences in Puerto Plata itself, or trips to various beach locations nearby. I opted for a traditional sightseeing tour by coach, with one extended stop in the city centre and one shorter stop on the waterfront.

 

After the usual lengthy hike along the pier and through the obligatory duty free shop, we were greeted by this colourful sculpture of sea life on the seaward side of the cruise terminal.

 

 A good tour is made or broken by the quality of the guide. Maria, who quickly asked us to call her “Mama,” was one of the better ones in my experience. She had plenty of historic detail about the country and the city at her fingertips, and shared it during the drive in. 

 

One detail which I certainly absorbed (and it surprised me) was that the Dominican Republic, unlike many of the Spanish-language countries in and around the Caribbean basin, did not win its independence from Spain. In this case, the colonizing power was the aggressively-minded Haiti, which shares the same large island, taking the western end. 

 

 More than one ruler of Haiti styled himself as "Emperor" due to large egos and larger expansive ambitions.

 

As we approached the city centre, we drove along one section of the waterfront drive to let us view the 1500s-vintage Fortaleza San Felipe. It was a reminder that the city's rarely-used official full name is San Felipe de Puerto Plata.

 

By the time we arrived at the main plaza in the centre of town, we’d absorbed enough to be ready for a colonial city with almost no colonial buildings left – this due to a catastrophic burning and destruction during an attempted recolonization by Spain which took place in 1863-65. 

What was definitely still colonial about Puerto Plata was the narrow streets, and their total inability to cope with waves of modern traffic. A traffic policeman on control duty at the intersection on the plaza was blowing his whistle continually throughout our entire visit. 

 

The plaza was dominated by the city hall on the east side, decked with long banners employing the colours and crest of the national flag….

 

 

…and the Cathedral of San Felipe on the south, dating from the 1930s, and presenting a simple, stylish Art Deco interpretation of a traditional Spanish church. 

 

 

The cathedral’s interior carries out the relatively plain promise of the exterior – not ornate, not encrusted with gold and gems, but attractive in its own quieter, less frantic way.

 

Over on the west side, the white wooden building with the shady front porch is the one surviving building from before the destruction of the 1860s to be found on the plaza.

 

 

Also on the square was this small outdoor stage, which Mama told us was the setting for popular shows enjoyed by whole families after mass on Sundays.

 

Nearby to the plaza, we walked into this narrow, crowded pedestrian street, colloquially known as the Umbrella Street. 

 

 

Like many other tour guides I've met, Mama was more than happy to take a picture on request.

Here we visited a gift shop where we were enticed by a small taster cup of hot chocolate (very tasty and chocolatey, not just all sugar as in Canada), and where I bought a bag of Dominican coffee. Can’t wait to get home and try that out!

 

We then crossed back over to the other side of the main east-west street and into another shop where we were softened up for the sales pitch by a sampler of locally-made rum (day drinking before 11 am again!). From there we made our way back to the plaza, where we had a rather lengthy wait for our bus driver to make his way back through the madhouse traffic with the coach – which he had been forced to park well outside the centre.

 

From there, we drove down to the waterfront, where we saw this elegant sign…

 

 

… and a whole string of waterfront bar/eateries like this one. 

 

Mama explained that these beach bars along the miles of beaches were popular with local families to grab lunch on beach outings since no plastic or glass is allowed on the beaches -- which makes bringing your own picnic much more of a challenge.

 

We took one more quick stop at a spot where a number of vendors were set up roadside, and there was a good view out to the statue of Neptune poised on a rocky outcrop in the ocean. No more shopping for me, but plenty of others on the tour dived in with a will.

 

 

From there we drove back out to Amber Cove after an interesting, informative, and very cramped and crowded experience. It was the crowding in the streets and sidewalks more than anything else which persuaded me that, colourful and exciting as the city can be, one visit to the old central area of Puerto Plata was quite enough.